Lately many bloggers wrote about problem with web metrics provided by Alexa and Compete. Problem is that their numbers are totally dependent on what they gather from users who are using their Firefox and Internet Explorer toolbars. Mostly this consists of people who are trying to inflate their website’s Alexa and Compete ranking by running the toolbar. In other words, both Alexa and Compete’s data is meaningless.

There is a new site on the web metrics block named IZEARanks. Their approach is to track real traffic like Google Analytics does by having users embed a snippet of script on their website, which sends unique visitor and pageview data back to IZEA. This will provide an accurate accounting of a website’s traffic ranking compared to other sites that are running the IZEA script. I think IZEARanks has a bright future because it provides real traffic data that can’t be manipulated the way that toolbar-dependent metrics can.

Unfortunately IZEA site still has some minor errors. For example I couldn't add my blogs today, but they provided a message that said: "Our programmers are informed and error will be repaired soon". I certainly hope so, because I really want that new web metrics!!!